Who do you service?  What does your ideal customer look like?

If your thinking, “anyone that breathes” or “I can help anybody,” your WRONG.  It’s time to get over the fear of loosing a potential customer and get into the art of niching.  It’s the most enjoyable and most effective way to grow your business.

How many times has someone told you, “We can’t be all things to all people.”  That phrase is said (especially to women) so often it’s become common place.  And yet, in business, many of us keep trying.  Chasing the tales of those customers that don’t really get what we’re about but we keep going after anyway.  Wouldn’t it be more fun to just let them go?

Are you having heart palpitations just thinking about it?  It’s okay.  Take a few deep breathes and try this 5 step process to channeling a client base…

1.  Picture your ideal client.

This is not necessarily your most profitable client.  The client you want to in vision is the person who  makes you excited about your business.  This is the client that has you smiling all day after working with them.  Do you have a person in mind?  Try not to over think it to much.  Just go with the first face in your head.  Grab a pen and write down three characteristics of that client that make it so enjoyable to work with them.

Got it?  Great!

Now picture your business as a swanky night club.  You’ve got a big-burly bouncer standing at the entrance holding a red-velvet rope.  Only those people with the three characteristics you wrote down get to come in and party.  You have a club full of A-list clients that make YOU want to party every day.  What would your business look like?

This sounds like a Utopia right?  But your probably thinking, “How do I get there?”  Well read on…

2.  How is your client packaged?

Think about that favorite client and the characteristics you’ve written down.  How is that person packaged?  What demographic do they fit in?  Think of other clients/potential clients you’ve encountered with similar attitudes.  Do they fit a certain mold?  For instance, a health insurance agent can service just about anyone, but an ideal client is a small business that cares about their employees and proves it in their benefits package.  This type of company usually has 25-50 employees and has a hands-on owner whose in touch with their employees.  See the difference between this person and “anybody”?

Now we have to answer some key questions about this client:

3. What are their 3 biggest challenges?  What service do you provide BETTER THEN ANYONE ELSE to overcome those challenges?

Think about this for a minute and narrow it down.  You should be thinking of one or two things you can offer.  Not 50!  Three services is the absolute maximum.  You can not be the best at 50 different things.  Let me repeat that with emphasis…

You can NOT be the BEST at 50 different things!

Pick your specialties and make yourself known for them.  This doesn’t mean you don’t offer other services.  However, the other services are just the icing on your fabulous cake. 

So you’ve figured out what your ideal customer is, what demographic they’re in, and what service you offer to meet their need.  Now let’s talk about how to convey that to your potential client or referral source.

4.  Write, practice, and utilize a phenomenal benefits statement.

In step three we talked about a service.  The benefit statement is how your client will enjoy the service.  For instance, our insurance agent above provides a service presence for the life of the contract.  So what?  Why does your client care?  The benefit statement would go something like this:

“When a client purchases group insurance through me I am the service contact.  Whenever a need or a question arises I’m your contact person.  This provides peace of mind and convenience because you never have to guess who to call for help.”

See the difference?  Constant service is the special feature.  Peace of mind is the benefit.  People by benefits not features.  Creating a powerful benefits statement is the key to consistent success with your IDEAL CLIENT.

5.  Share your biggest WOW! story.

Ask that client that you thought of above to give you a testimonial about what your services have done for their business.  Make sure to get permission to use it in your marketing efforts.  Share this story with prospects and network partners.  This is how you tie it all together.

It is worth a clear vision of who our clients are that we can join the party at our own club.  My business is a hopping party every day, want to join me?